Product: Garnier Nutrisse Permanent Color
Use: At home color to change your current color or cover up grays
Price: about $7.00 for a one application box
Makeup and Beauty Blog Rating: A

I can justify spending $75 on a haircut because I have naturally wavy hair thatâ€™s really hard to tame – Iâ€™ve had so many bad haircuts resulting in everything from the poofy mushroom to the rats nest look â€“ so I never skimp on getting a good haircuts.

Throughout my 20s and early 30s, I was also willing to spend money on salon color. I went through all sorts of hair color phases, changing my naturally brown-black hair with red highlights, light brown and blonde highlights. Itâ€™s so much fun to change your hair color, but now that I’m living on a writerâ€™s paycheck itâ€™s really hard to part with $120 every three months to get those roots done, especially when the do-it-yourself color boxes at the store are $7.00.

During my year of living cheaply (wait, what am I talking about, Iâ€™m still living cheaply) I gave up getting my hair colored at the salon. I was a little nervous about doing it at first because the last time I did at-home hair color was in high school. I mean, what if my hair turned orange? Or what if I accidentally fried it somehow and it started breaking off? Or what if I ended up with scary too-dark Halloween hair that looked like an Elvira-Mistress-Of-The-Night wig? The mishap possibilities were endless.

I wish I could say that it all went perfectly from the get-go, but I canâ€™t. Like with any new skill, I made a few mistakes along the way but thank god it didnâ€™t really result in anything too horrific. One time I started from the roots because I got really freaked out about seeing gray hairs at the front of my head, so I piled on globs of dye on the roots like a crazy person and I ended up with light roots and dark ends. And another time I used a too-dark color that I left in too long which resulted in scary dark Elvira-Halloween hair for about a week until most of the color washed out. But in the grand scheme of things, these mistakes werenâ€™t *that* bad. They werenâ€™t noticeable to the majority of bystanders, unless I pointed it out (which of course I didnâ€™t).

Now I color my hair every month, and itâ€™s as easy as pie. I use Garnier Fructis Permanent Hair color. The smell is pretty strong, but in comparison to other at-home dyes itâ€™s not bad. It also doesnâ€™t dry my hair out, which is one thing I hated most about Feria, the dye I used in high school. If you have dark hair like me and want to go a few shades lighter, Garnier is a good choice, because it does a pretty good job of lifting your hair color a few shades.

Here what I do to make at home hair color work for me:

1. I wash my hair in the morning with a clarifying shampoo. Right now I use Alberto VO5 Kiwi and Lime Squeeze shampoo. Itâ€™s cheap and gets the gunk out. I use a lot of gel so I shampoo twice to get my hair squeaky clean and donâ€™t put any conditioner afterwards.

2. I then let my hair air dry during the day so that I can dye my hair in the evening.

3. When itâ€™s time to dye, I put on an old t-shirt and sweatpants so I donâ€™t ruin any nice clothing. I also grab an old wash cloth and wet it. I use this to immediately wipe any dye that accidentally gets on my face or my neck. I donâ€™t have to use this as much now, because Iâ€™m getting less messy with practice.

4. Garnier gives an estimated time of how long you should leave the color in. I start the clock the moment I being the coloring process. If the box says 35 minutes, then I take into account total dye time from start to finish. I do not dye my hair and then wait for 35 minutes â€“ the one time I did the color ended up being too dark, which resulted in the Elvira-Halloween hair mishap. Ugh!

5. If Iâ€™m using a new color, I always start from the ends and put the color on the roots last.

6. I never pile the hair on top of my head while Iâ€™m coloring. I just let it hang down (hence the wearing of the crappy t-shirt).

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remember rule of thumb, never shampoo your hair the day of. Hair color actually works better of the hair is a little dirty. Just wash your hair the day before then color it of you don’t like going long without washing it.